As I walked home from the train station tonight I found it hard to believe that just a week ago Mr C and I were down in Cornwall with amazingly warm weather - we were even able to wander round in a t-shirt and jeans at one point! Tonight that it felt bitterly cold - as if spring has gone totally.On our first full day in Cornwall we decided to explore the nearby village of Tintagel and the surrounding cliffs. We started off at the Old Post Office that is now owned by the National Trust (another good excuse to get our membership cards out). It is a delightful old ... read more
An anniversary at Heligan
Mr C and I decided to spend our wedding anniversary itself at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Both of us had read about the gardens and seen them featured on various television programmes and as soon as we planned our trip to Cornwall it was obvious that we'd have to visit. For those of you that aren't aware of the history of the gardens here is a very brief summary. The gardens were originally part of the Heligan estate owned by the Tremayne family. A team of gardeners were employed there, but many of them were called away to serve in the First World War. As a result of the ... read more
A walk in the woods
Inspired by this article on the local paper's website, Mr C and I went to explore Heartwood Forest on Sunday afternoon. Back in 2008 I remember being woken up one morning by the radio news telling us that St Albans was going to be home to the Woodland Trust's new forest. At the time exact details were a bit sketchy, but the site is all now agreed, and purchased I believe, and access has been made for the public.The plan is for them to create a 840 acre wood near Sandridge, on the outskirts of St Albans. There are already about 45 acres of ancient woodland in the land that ... read more
Garden planning
It's been a week of form filling, building societies and Mr C's birthday! The house is still progressing with solicitors involved and lots of paperwork being generated. This also means that we're starting to spend money, so fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong from here. Mr C and I have been to visit a couple of building societies about mortgages. We're waiting for one final piece of information from one and then we should be able to decide once and for all as to which we are going with. They will then need to get the survey done - fingers crossed that it won't ... read more
Bullfinches on the feeder
Since receiving a pair of binoculars for Christmas I've been watching out for birds much more than before - and have been able to see them closer up than ever before too.I was thrilled on Sunday whilst down at the WWA to see something bright and slightly unusual in a tree near the feeder. One of the other committee members that was down in the hide with me helped me to identify it as a bullfinch. Reading up now on the RSPB website I note that bullfinches now have a "red status" meaning that they meet the following ... read more
Wintery weekend
This is the wintery scene that greeted me as I left home to go to work on Friday morning. Walking to St Albans station was like walking through a blizzard - I was wearing wellies and my ski jacket and was white with snow when I reached the station. There the staff were advising us not to venture into London as there could be no guarantees that we'd actually get home again. I pressed on though and actually felt quite silly by the time I got into London as there everything was just grey and miserable looking. My colleagues had a good laugh though when I appeared in the office dressed for ... read more
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch
This morning Mr C and I were taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. This annual birdwatch has been taking place now for 30 years here in the UK, and Compost Woman recently wrote about how the event had grown from it's beginnings into being an incredibly important piece of research into British birds and also into a fantastic activity for children wanting to learn more.I'm not sure if Mr C and I fit into the children category, but I certainly learnt much more about birds by taking part. We don't have a garden, so instead headed down to our local nature ... read more
Wassail success
Awning number 2After all the palaver this morning with the awning I'm pleased to report that the Wassail was a huge success. Everything was set up in time, the weather stayed nice and bright and over a hundred local people came along. The Wicket Brood danced and entertained alongside the main Wassailing ceremony. The guests all seemed to enjoyed the spread of food that we put on and donated generously in return. An amazing spread of food Home-made jam all made from fruit collected at the reserve Toffee apples kindly donated by a visitorThe Wicket BroodThe committee are now ... read more
Awning update
Well, we lost our awing during the night. It looks like one big gust caused several of the poles in the top ridge to snap and for the metal bracing to become bent. The tarpaulin itself became ripped as well. Not that surprising when I think back to all the noise last night of the wind blowing heavy rain into our bedroom window. Our chairman even has one of those electronic weather station things in his (rather sheltered) back garden. It's previous highest reading was 15 mph. Last night it recorded 75 mph! I'm not sure we totally believe it though.Luckily one of our ... read more
Preparing for a Wassail
It feels like I've been neglecting this blog a bit over the last couple of week. Sorry, but life just seems to have been getting in the way of all the things I want to do. I need to try and maximise my evenings a bit more now that I've gone back to work. I seem to be struggling with this at the moment, but fingers crossed that I can create a better work - life balance over the next week.This weekend is a busy one down at the WWA as tomorrow we are holding our annual Wassail. We have an orchard area at the WWA and every January we always invite local people to go wassailing, ... read more